Listening to stories can expand children's knowledge, provide sheer enjoyment, and help children understand their world and how people relate to each other in it. This book compiles tips and suggestions from expert storytellers and teachers, and shows teachers and parents how to capture children's attention and imagination using simple, creative…

Paper presented at the Midwestern Renaissance Society Meeting, Urbana, Illinois, April 1970. (DD)

Examines a young girl's responses to "feminist" and "patriarchal" folktales. Explains that issues raised by tales involved the exercise of personal agency, physical strength of males and females, and the symbolic significance of dress. Contends that findings challenge psychological theories about the appeal of folktales to young children, and…

Describes the folk tale "Iron John" and the attraction it held for the author as a boy. Discusses the author's own reforming of the tale in a picture book version. (SR)

Discusses the historic derivation and the format and characteristics of traditional tall tales, and modern adaptations of these stories. Describes a selection of tall tales for modern young adult readers; notes titles and authors of original tall tales and those with female heroes. Discusses the enduring appeal of traditional and modern tall…

This paper speaks from a poetic voice and briefly discusses the untamed nature of metaphor and narrative. Then the story is shared. The tale relates to how healing of identity, after eons of racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of social isolation and internalised sorrow, requires deep abiding patience. Situated in transpersonal or spiritual…

Undoubtedly, primitive man sat around the campfire sharing lessons of survival while telling tales of dangerous animals, ferocious storms, and other scourges of nature. We can well envision these early storytellers embellishing their escapades with waving arms and other exaggerated expressions, but these accounts effectively increased man's…

In this book, the author reveals the creative force of children's narrative imagination and shows how this develops through childhood. He provides a new and powerful understanding of the significance of narrative for children's intellectual growth and for learning and teaching. The book explores a series of real stories written by children between…

Underscoring folklore's appropriateness to multicultural classroom settings are its connection with past and present cultures, its constancy and change, and its potential for oral transmission of human values. Most importantly, folktales and songs enable children to participate in the history of universal human emotions. To effectively include…

This story was told to the author by her grandmother, a Yurok born at Pecwan in 1898. Long ago, at a council meeting, the animals decided to ask the Great Creator for tails. He agreed and promised to give each animal a tail the next morning. The first animal to get up would have first choice. Coyote built a big fire and tried hard to stay awake…

This monograph contains a report of the field work stage of a research project, on the educational significance of the modern Australian oral tradition, which involved the collection of recordings of people telling tales, reminiscing, recalling personal events of significance, and recounting traditional Australian legends from non-Aboriginal…

Storytelling is a shared experience between the teller and the listeners. The two basic concerns of the storyteller are to choose good stories and to make the telling interesting and exciting. Selection of a story should be based on the criteria of good plot and characters, an authentic setting, appropriate dialog, and appeal to the listerners'…

Recounts the processes involved in compiling folklore tales for a published collection. (MS)